How many companies have already been awarded the label?
Currently around 110 companies with a total of some 220 000 employees, but the potential is enormous. Incidentally, the initiative for this label (friendlyworkspace.ch) originally came from large companies such as SBB and Migros. They called for standards for good health management that made it possible to compare different companies. The companies asked us to manage the neutral awarding body and to develop the idea further. Meanwhile, one third of the participating companies are now SMEs. Robust health management is not a matter of company size. There are also some very good health promotion programmes these days at SMEs – and by the same token some large companies are barely able to obtain group short-term disability benefit insurance due to their poor claims figures.

Cases of people with mental health problems have been increasing in Switzerland for years. According to the Swiss Health Observatory, more than 500 000 people received treatment in an outpatient psychiatric-psychotherapeutic practice in 2020. Are we in a mental health crisis?
I wouldn’t subscribe to the idea that we’re having a mental health crisis. Since the Second World War, the proportion of people with severe mental health disorders has remained stable at 20 to 25% of the total population, both in Switzerland and in other countries. Moreover, as Switzerland is increasingly moving towards a service-oriented society, this is leading to a shift, in that whereas in the past the focus was on accidents at work or illnesses caused by heavy physical work or an asbestos-contaminated working environment, today it is on mental health problems, very often caused by time pressure, having to be available around the clock, overwork or workplace conflicts.

The topic of “mental health” is almost omnipresent, isn’t it?
People are much more aware of it than they were 20 years ago. The greater presence of the subject in everyday life has meant that it has lost some of its stigma and that well-known personalities, such as Robbie Williams or Natalie Rickly, also talk about difficult episodes in their lives. This is a positive development. Our foundation regularly surveys 1000 employees from throughout Switzerland regarding the amount of stress they feel at work. Last year, 30% of respondents said they frequently felt emotionally very exhausted. I find this a worrying figure. These people are working at full speed. If this continues, there’s a risk of them burning out sooner or later.

Prolonged absences from work frequently occur in connection with mental health. Does Gesundheitsförderung Schweiz offer special support programmes?
I’d like to come back in this respect to prevention. We offer a lot here. If a person often has to work under time pressure due to the nature of their job, there is not much you can do about it. For example, a caregiver will always have the problem of difficult clients, which is part of their job. But there are ways to cushion the consequences of these circumstances so that the person concerned stays healthy. This is where we start, with early detection and team development being very important. We provide tools in these areas. We also cultivate strategic partnerships to promote the topic, for example with insurance companies.

Where do you see the most urgent need for action in promoting health?
Clearly in the area of mental health. And especially in terms of prevention. We need to move away from actionism and develop something based on a clear concept. The second key factor is the increasingly important role of the team. Working methods are changing and many companies are introducing organisational structures with flatter hierarchies or trying out new management models in which teams have more responsibility. Teams are already a key element for stability and satisfaction and are increasingly also responsible for the early detection and care of stressed employees. These used to be classic management tasks.

How do you rate the services provided by insurance companies in the area of mental health?
They’re gathering pace. Many insurance companies I know now offer such services. That’s very good. In the best case, preventative measures are also put in place. However, insurers are unable to meet the high demand. They ultimately respond reactively to their corporate clients and are unable to serve them all in terms of capacity. In my opinion, there are too few incentives for businesses to take action earlier.

Do you see new insurance solutions in the area of mental health from the perspective of promoting health, or at least the beginnings of such solutions?
Yes, I think I do. On the one hand there are the incentives already mentioned which reward companies with good health management approaches. I know a fairly large company that when renewing its group short-term disability benefit insurance successfully negotiated for its re-certification for the “Friendly Work Space” label to be paid for. It would be nice if insurers not only offered support for absences in the event of a claim, but took into account in their pricing whether a company already has a well-functioning health management system. Insurers could also offer more services related to the early detection of stress and the development of preventative health management.